jac 03/01/05

Released: 1950
Length: 88 minutes
Producer: Masaichi Nagata for Daiei
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Original Story: "Rashomon" and "In a Grove" by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa and Shinobu Hashimoto
Cinematography: Kazuo Miyagawa
Music: Fumio Hayasaka
 

Cast:

Woodcutter..........................................................................Takeshi Shimura
Priest.........................................................................................Minoru Chiaki
Tajomaru, The Bandit............................................................Toshiro Mifune
Masago........................................................................................Machiko Kyo
Takehiro...................................................................................Masayuki Mori
Wanderer...................................................................................Kichijiro Ueda

Story:

A woodcutter and a priest take shelter from a downpour under the ancient and crumbling Rashomon gate outside Kyoto. A wanderer joins them and begins to ask about a horrible rape and murder that have recently taken place. As the film unfolds, each of the characters in turn presents his or her version of events, all similar and yet all different. In flashbacks to testimony to the police, the bandit accepts culpability for the murder, but refutes the charge of rape, saying that it was an act of mutual consent. The woman agrees that the bandit attacked her, but indicates that she may have been the murderess. The dead man's tale (told through a medium) claims rape and suicide. The only "impartial" witness, the woodcutter, weaves two stories that mix elements of the other three and are inconsistent with each other! At the end of the film an abandoned baby is discovered behind the gate by the priest, and ultimately taken home by the woodcutter as a life-affirming act.
 

Commentary:

Rashomon was a break-through film. It was the first Japanese film to gain worldwide attention, establishing Kurosawa as the darling of western cinema aficionados. The film won the 1952 Oscar for best foreign language film.

Kurosawa's film is faithful to Akutagawa's stories, yet takes it's own direction in exploring the problem of whether anyone can ever the truth. Kurosawa never reveals what actually happened (if indeed he knows), and the viewer is left confused by the stories and unable to separate truth from fiction even on repeated viewings.

One of the strengths of Kurosawa's treatment is the way in which Rashomon's camerawork supports the distortion of reality. For example, he violates the so-called "180 degree rule," a principle of seamless editing which requires that the camera always stay on the same side of the action so as not to confuse the viewer's sense of left and right. By moving the camera back and forth across the image plane unexpectedly, Kurosawa's images interfere with our sense of continuity and reality in a way that supports the story-line, usually without our even becoming aware of this manipulation.

Even fifty years after its release, Rashomon retains its power to evoke questions about reality and perception, perhaps even more so in our post-modern age.